When Old Music Doesn’t Die

We’re all cursed with the need to rescue old content, and there’s little that’s older or more inconvenient than reel to reel tape. If you have the funds, you can buy equipment similar to the setup owned the Internet Archive. But if you don’t have it, there is a cheaper solution.

In what is perhaps the most extreme example of adapting new tech to fill an old need, one enterprising hacker has modified a Square credit card reader to work as a replacement for a reel to reel tape player.

Check out the demo video below.

This hack really required very little work. The Square reader was already designed to read magnetic strips, so all it needed was a few minor modifications so the tape would slide through easier.

Recording the sound was even easier; the hacker reports that any sound recording app in iTunes should be able to do it.